Ukraine Deputy Governors Obstructing Justice
KYIV — The chairman of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has accused a governor’s two deputies in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region of obstruction of justice and financing criminal groups.
Valentyn Nalyvaychenko told reporters in Kyiv on March 23 that Deputy Governors Hennadiy Korban and Svyatoslav Oliynyk have threatened SBU investigators with armed groups in an effort to stop investigations into organized-crime activities in Dnipropetrovsk.
Nalyvaychenko added that an armed group that occupied the headquarters of the country’s main oil company, Ukrnafta, in Kyiv overnight has links to the criminal groups in Dnipropetrovsk.
Nalyvaychenko said President Petro Poroshenko had ordered the disarming of the group at Ukrnafta.
On March 19, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Ihor Kolomoyskiy came to state-owned oil-transit company Ukrtransnafta after the company’s monitoring council replaced its chief.
Kolomoyskiy, whose PrivatGroup holds a 42 percent stake in Ukrtransnafta, was upset to see journalists at the site and verbally assaulted an RFE/RL reporter there.
On March 22, armed men occupied Ukrnafta and an armored personnel carrier blocked the entrance.
Ukrainian lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem says the armed men attacked and beat him on March 22 when he tried to enter the building.